Optimism for Melbourne

Having completed the first two exhausting long-haul races, the BMW Sauber F1 Team is now optimistically preparing for the third round, which also be held far form the team's European headquarters, in Australia.

In last weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix, Nick Heidfeld and Jacques Villeneuve impressed with a good race performance. Following a difficult qualifying session, the BMW Sauber F1 Team driver pairing wasn't convinced of being able to match the pace of the cars in front of them. But this scepticism proved to be wrong. On lap 41, Nick set his personal fastest time, a 1:35:751 lap. Just six drivers succeeded in setting a faster lap time than the 28-year-old German.

Jacques also made it into the top ten fastest laps. With his 1:36:002 lap, set on lap 43, the Canadian was the ninth quickest driver in the race. While Jacques finished seventh to score two World Championship points, Nick had to retire from fifth place, with just seven laps remaining.

Now, the BMW Sauber F1 Team focuses on the Australian Grand Prix, to be held at Melbourne on 2nd April. "The race team will fly directly to Melbourne, together with all our equipment," reveals BMW Motorsport Director, Mario Theissen. "We're already halfway therefore, it would be insane to ship everything back. Many of our team members, however, will return to Europe and come back one week later. In the meantime, we will go testing at Paul Ricard. The team is already preparing for these tests."